Casino: power outage forces evacuation
16th June, 2008
Pennsylvania’s Mount Airy Casino Resort was forced to evacuate its entire facility Saturday after a severe thunderstorm resulted in the interruption of power to the building. The casino’s doors were reopened on Sunday.
The casino lost power 6 p.m. on Saturday, but did not evacuate the facility until 9:30 p.m. after the casino had been operating for several hours on backup power, according to Paul Resch, Acting Director of Gaming Operations for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board
“Gaming Control Board staff remained onsite at Mount Airy throughout the temporary closure and we approved the reopening only after ensuring connectivity between the slot machines and the Central Control Computer System that links all slot machines and monitors revenue,” Resch said
At no point did the power go out completely because of the backup power, but precautionary measures were taken to ensure the safety of the casino patrons inside. The casino was reopened when power was restored at 12 p.m. on Sunday.
“As in other situations that have arisen where a casino faced a temporary emergency shutdown, cooperation existed between the Board staff, the State Police, the employees and management of the casino operator, and the Department of Revenue,” Donaghue said. “While it was unfortunate that this circumstance occurred, Pennsylvanians can be assured that everyone acted in the best interest of caution to assure public safety and work to get the casino back open as quickly as possible.”
By Michael
